As most of you probably know by now, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has gotten himself into hot water as a known client of a sex ring / high priced escort service.
The charges that Spitzer face are quite serious, too:
- Violating the Mann Act, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment for knowingly persuading or inducing any individual to cross state lines for the purposes of prostitution.
- Structuring: creating a series of financial movements designed to evade reporting requirements for large transactions and to obscure the true purpose of the payments. The maximum penalty is five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
- Prostitution (up to 90 days in jail, or a fine of up to $500, or both, for the first offense.)
Not enough can be said about just how idiotic Spitzer's behavior is, especially considering that he is the former Attorney General of New York, whose former career was supposedly based on fighting corruption. In fact, it was only four years ago when he boasted about busting up a massive prostitution ring, promising to send sex workers and ring organizers away for up to 25 years.
Amazingly enough, Spitzer doesn't seem like he's planning on resigning anytime soon. He even referred to it as a "private matter" in his press conference yesterday, despite the obvious implication that it is now anything but. Certainly, it's not viewed that way by most New Yorkers. A new SurveyUSA poll indicates that a 58%-32% majority of New Yorkers say that Spitzer should resign.
The survey also indicates that support for his resignation cuts across all demographics — gender, age, race, party, ideology, marital status, region, and support for presidential candidates — with the only variation being in by just how much these different groups want him to go.
But will he go?! I kind of doubt he will do so without a great deal of prodding, in part because this whole issue is becoming politicized. You see, both Spitzer and his possible replacement are Clinton superdelegates. If Spitzer steps down, his replacement would gain control of Spitzer's superdelegate vote, but lose control of his own, and would be unable to name a replacement... thereby losing Hillary Clinton one delegate in the presidential race.
As a result, expect Clinton's supporters to spend the next several months defending a corrupt, hypocritical lame duck politician, who potentially faces multiple years in prison, on multiple counts of several of the aforementioned crimes. (As you might note, this is historically a pretty normal "state of affairs" for diehard Clinton supporters.)
So, what is it about hopelessly damaged New York politicians that they won't step aside and give another skilled party member a chance, instead of dragging their party and everything they stand for down in a pique of total career suicide?! Just sayin'...
